UConn Women Crush The Orange For 70th Straight Win

With the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team picking up it’s 70th straight win and Maya Moore scoring the 2,000th point of her career, one would think that was the story of the game on Sunday.

Well those are just two parts of the story but the real story is the domination of the Syracuse Orange by Big East Player of the Year Tina Charles.

Charles was a monster as she had a career-high 34 points to go along with six rebounds and five blocked shots in UConn’s 77-41 win over the Orange in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.

It’s the 70th straight win for the Huskies (31-0) matching their own record that took place during the 2001-03 seasons. The Orange fall to 22-10 and must now wait to see if they’ll hear their name called for the NCAA Tournament.

Moore had a pretty good game herself as she fell three assists short of a triple-double. She finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and three assists while adding five steals. She scored the 2,000th point of her career on a layup with 18:39 to go in the game. Tiffany Hayes and Kalana Greene both chipped in with seven points.

The only member of the Orange to hit double digits was Kayla Alexander, who came of the bench to score 11 points. Carmen Tyson-Thomas also came off the bench to score seven points.

In the first half it was the Charles show. She outscored the Orange by herself 21-17 with the Huskies holding a 44-17 lead.  It was the 17-2 run to start the game that really put the Orange in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

The Huskies have been amazing to watch over the course of the streak and Sunday’s performance was no different. They came out firing and stepped up the defensive pressure. It also doesn’t hurt that they have the two best players in the country in Charles and Moore.

The Huskies will now take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament on Monday night at 6 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

Notes and musings:

Syracuse Orange @ UConn Huskies Big East Quarterfinal Box score 3.7.10

The starters were Caroline Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Kalana Greene, Maya Moore and Tina Charles.

The UConn sophomore class is now 70-0 at UConn while the junior class is 106-2. The senior class is 138-6.

The Huskies shot 51.6% (33-of-64) from the floor while the Orange shot 21.2% (14-of-66).

UConn had an amazing 26 assists on their 33 made baskets.

Despite Charles’ amazing game, she was just 2-of-8 from the free throw line. The Huskies as a team were just 10-of-19 (52.1%).

The Huskies were just 1-of-13 (7.7%) from three point land.

UConn won the battle of the boards 51-43.

The Huskies outscored the Orange 48-16 in the paint and 28-6 on the fast break.

UConn had 23 points off of 19 Syracuse turnovers. The Orange had eight points off of 15 UConn turnovers.

The rest of the notes are courtesy of the UConn Sports Information Department:

• Today’s win marked UConn’s 70th straight – tying its own record for the longest winning streak in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history (2001-03).
• The Huskies have won all 70 consecutive games by double-digits, an NCAA record. During the span, the team has averaged a margin of victory of 32.8 points.
• Maya Moore became the fastest player in UConn history to reach the 2,000-point milestone and the only junior to do so for the program with her 16 points in today’s contest.
• Maya Moore’s 16 points moves her past Renee Montgomery into seventh place on UConn’s all-time scoring list with her current tally of 2,003.
• Tina Charles’ 34 points tied her career high, marking the second time this season scoring 30 or more points and the fourth of her career.
• UConn improves to 57-12 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament action and has won each of the last seven straight.
• UConn boasts an all-time mark of 106-11 in games played at the XL Center in Hartford and has won each of its last 32 in a row.
• UConn is 16-2 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament games at the XL Center in Hartford.
• UConn improves to 22-4 in the quarterfinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament and has won each of the last 22 after dropping the first four.
• UConn moves to 44-4 all-time when playing as the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament.
• UConn moves to 2-0 all-time against Syracuse in BIG EAST Tournament action.
• UConn opens the season a perfect 31-0 for the second straight season and the sixth time since 1994-95.
• UConn is 263-11 all-time when playing as the top-ranked team in the Associated Press poll.
• UConn has won 135 games against non-ranked opponents following today’s win over Syracuse.
• UConn is 93-18 in games played on national television since 2001-02 and a perfect 10-0 this season.
• UConn is 33-12 all-time against Syracuse and has won each of the last 19 meetings between the programs.
• This is the 17th season in which UConn has been the BIG EAST Tournament No. 1 seed.
• UConn opened up today’s contest with a 17-2 run in the first 5:57. During that span, Maya Moore and Tina Charles both had six points.
• Tina Charles outscored Syracuse 21-17 in the first half, marking the fourth time this season that she has outscored her opponent in the opening 20 minutes of play (vs. Northeastern on Nov. 14, 2009: Charles – 17, NU – 15; at Seton Hall on Jan. 2, 2010: Charles -14, SHU – 12; vs. North Carolina on Jan. 9, 2010: Charles – 25, UNC 24.)
• Syracuse’s 17 points in the first half marked the fewest points allowed in a BIG EAST Championship game in a half since March 8, 2009 when UConn defeated South Florida 47-10.
• UConn held Syracuse to a .212 (14-of-66) clip from the floor in today’s contest, including a .182 (6-of-33) showing in the first half.
• The Huskies have gone 221 consecutive games without allowing an opponent to shoot more than .500 from the field. Boston College was the last opponent to post a shooting percentage more than .500, coming on March 8, 2004.
• Maya Moore’s 16 points marks her 30th game with double-figure points this season and her 104th in 108 career games.
• Tina Charles’ 34 points marks her 29th game with double-figure points this season and the 113th of her career.
• Maya Moore’s 16 points and 14 rebounds marked her 38th career double-double and her 11th this season.
• Tina Charles’ 16 made field goals sets a new BIG EAST Championship record, breaking the previous mark of 15 made most recently by Tawana Jackson of St. John’s on March 4, 1995.